Dinner
Chicken and Lentil Soup in the Instant Pot
This simple chicken and lentil soup made right in your Instant Pot (or any pressure cooker) is a hearty meal that’ll warm you to the bone! Ever since getting an Instant Pot back in 2017, I’ve wondered how I managed without a pressure cooker for so long. Don’t get me wrong, a pressure cooker’s no substitute for a slow cooker… It’s just, I’ve found many of the same recipes can be whipped up in a fraction of the time — which can be helpful if you’ve not planned a meal hours in advance. It’s been fun to play around with ingredients I’ve had in the fridge and pantry, particularly when…
Chicken Sausage and Apple Rigatoni
Chicken sausage and apple rigatoni takes about thirty minutes from start to finish, which means it’s a snap to pull together on a busy weeknight! And, with fall right around the corner, busy weeknights are about to be status quo. Ahhhh, fall. Apple “everything” is about to be in the air: apple scented candles, apple cider, homemade slow cooker applesauce, apple pie, etc. Pretty soon the leaves will turn brilliant sunset shades and evenings will start getting crisp and cool, even though the sun still warms the day. It’s a phenomenal time of year; one of my absolute favorites! Though many of the recipes I make with apples are…
Creamy Penne With Spinach, Mushrooms, and Seared Chicken Sausage
This easy weeknight pasta dinner uses ricotta to make the delicious creamy penne sauce. A little out of the box, yes, but I like to make a game out of leftover or partially used ingredients in my fridge and pantry. Like, how can half a lemon, six ounces of chicken stock, and sour cream be repurposed into some sort of delectable savory sauce to brush over a lightly salted grilled chicken breast? Hmmm… Or, maybe a handful of berries, a bruised pear, and a mostly used carton of half-n-half can be whipped into one of the best cobblers on the planet. Not only is that “game” fun, it’s also practical. Like…
Perfect Everyday Juicy Roast Chicken
I have a few favorite comfort foods, but none can compare with a juicy roast chicken, skin seasoned and baked to crispy goodness. Served with mashed potatoes and gravy … yum! How can you compete with that? As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links. It’s been over a decade since I first discovered how easy it is to make roast chicken. For whatever reason, and I know I’m not alone, cooking a whole entire animal feels daunting when you’ve never done it before. Even something as simple and “everyday” as a chicken. Turns out with a little practice and some helpful tools,…
Chicken Stew and Drop Biscuit Dumplings
Chicken stew and drop biscuit dumplings is the perfect wintry warm-you-up meal. It’s snowed (well, flurried, really) a few times so far this season — not a lot, but enough to make things feel cozy and wintry. When winter finally sets in somewhere mid-January, I love lazy Saturdays and Sundays when we can relax and eat hearty comfort food. And, I find this is most often satisfied by something slowly simmering in a slow cooker or on the stove all day in my dutch oven, with wafts of deep, savory smells permeating the house. Something like a stew or soup. Growing up, my grandmother always made chicken and dumplings in…
Marinated Chicken Fajitas
In the world of “quick and easy” meals, these marinated chicken fajitas won’t disappoint! Tender, juicy and full of flavor, you’ll want to make sure to have plenty of leftovers on hand for lunch the next day. There are so many ways to make fajitas, including using pre-cooked frozen chicken or beef fajita strips from the grocery store. If I’m really in a rush, having these on hand in the deep freezer is a lifesaver! Just sauté some peppers, onions and garlic and toss in the strips with seasoning, and you’ll have dinner on the table in no time. Having said that, starting fajitas from scratch with chicken breasts or…
Spaghetti and Easy Homemade Meatballs
Make this yummy spaghetti with easy homemade meatballs in under an hour! I recently watched Anne Burrell make meatballs on one of her Food Network shows. Spaghetti and meatballs are a quintessential comfort foods that almost everyone loves. Plus, they’re the type of meal that gets better with time, which means you can make a gigantic batch and then feast on the leftovers all week long. As a person who *loves* eating leftovers for lunch, this is right up my alley. During my last trip to the grocery store, I bought a package of ground lamb/beef/veal (a.k.a. “meatloaf mix”), and with an open afternoon and the whole family home for…
Make-Ahead Casserole Recipes
There’s nothing better than having dinner ready to go on a busy night. Who doesn’t love a warm, gooey casserole? Especially casserole recipes that can either be tossed in the fridge till dinner the next day, or frozen for weeks (or months)! To me, casseroles are one of the best comfort foods out there, and make-ahead casserole recipes are the best. THE BEST! A friend who’s due any day with her second baby recently asked me if I’d help her prep a few freezer meals to tuck away until after the baby’s born. (For the record, I was not that smart with my food prep. For either child.) Those of you who’ve raised…
